Why Text Analytics is a Search Engine’s Secret Weapon

I recently wrote a piece on text mining in search for Tech Radar, and I wanted to talk a little bit more about it here because text mining, or text analytics, is a search engine’s secret weapon.

A pure keyword search engine is a blunt instrument. Sure, you might find what you’re looking for, but even if you do, you’ll have to slog through a mire of unrelated results just to get there. Adding text analysis makes search engines more precise and efficient, allowing you to get exactly what you’re looking for faster.

Text analysis adds the secret ingredient that keyword search is missing: context. By extracting useful metadata, like who and what is being discussed, using text analysis, search engines can create a cross-referencing system (faceted search), and filter for certain subjects and topics.

When a word has multiple meanings, it takes context to determine which meaning is being used (word sense disambiguation). Text analysis does that as well, improving accuracy by weeding out irrelevant search results, like results on large American felines when searching for information on the Jaguar brand.